Justice Lateefat Folami of the Lagos High court today refused to grant the application brought by Mahmud Tukur, Ochonogor Alex and Abdulahi Alao to have their travelling document released to them.
Justice Folami in her ruling said she could not overrule the ruling of Justice Adeniyi Onigbanjo who had earlier ruled that the trio deposit their travelling documents with EFCC as part of their bail conditions.
Justice Folami agreed with the submission of EFCC counsel Rotimi Oyedepo, that the said business meeting which the 1st defendant claimed he wanted to attend had been overtaken by time as the letter for the meeting was dated August 20, 2011. She also said she could not grant the application based on the argument that the defendant needed the document to travel for Hajj as the Hajj period is likely to coincide with the trial date fixed for November 13 and 14, 2012.
The trio were arraigned on July 26, 2012 on a 9 count charge for offences that borders on obtaining money through false pretence, forgery and uttering contrary to section 468 of the Criminal code before Justice Onigbanjo. They were alleged to have fraudulently obtained N1.8billion from the federal government through the Petroleum Support Fund.
Justice Onigbanjo granted bail to the accused persons in the sum of N20 million each, two surety in like sum, one of the surety is to own a landed property worth N100 million and the certificate deposited with the court.
The judge also ordered that one of the sureties should be a level 16 officer either with the Lagos State government or the federal government and should present evidence of tax payment in the last three years. The accused persons are to deposit their international passport with the EFCC while the registrar is to verify all sureties.
